When not attending to garden tasks what other things have filled your day?

Evenings are drawing in a bit now so that makes our gardening days a bit shorter.

We don't watch tv much at all ,it gets switched off after the early evening news and weather updates.

We listen to music alot, it's always on in the background. We have a very wide and varying taste between us due to our differing cultural back grounds . I absolutely love the traditional music from hubs homeland. During the day ( mostly in Winter when we are inside) we play more popular music ranging from today's chart toppers to oldies from my teenage years and later.
However in the evenings we love to chill to gentle and calming Classical music ,it certainly helps to unwind and relax.

This is one of my favourites as it always brings me tranquillity at the end of a day that is now so often filled with worldwide unrest and hostility. For 7 minutes my world in calm and perfect.



I have also made an early start on my charity knitting for next year's Big Knit Campaign to support Age Uk. Having just sent in this years donations ( will be donning the Innocent Smoothie Bottles this Autumn....please buy one as the money from ' hatted' bottles will help raise much needed funds for vulnerable elderly people...especially during the dark Winter months.) I thought I would make an early start
in the hope of increasing my final count by next July's deadline .

 

Oreti, Love Spiegel Im Spiegel. Have it in both my Classical, and Ambient libraries

 

With my wife's MS and more recent osteoporosis, she can't do a lot. So I have to attend to almost all domestic chores and shopping, as well as look after the garden.

I've a few hobbies.

I like to play the Yamaha YTS tenor saxophone, I bought new over ten years ago.
It lives on its stand behind the TV in the front room, because I can't be bothered to put it away in its case in a spare bedroom. I don't play it that often, I can play a recognisable tune, but I only play for my own entertainment.


I'm on my sixth electric piano, it's a Yamaha Tyros 5. I've had it about nine years. I again, play just for my own amusement, but I do subscribe to a Yamaha keyboard owner's message board, where we post the recordings we've made and store on "Box." I've a couple of hundred, mostly "standards" a few vintage pop and jazz.
I like to chuck in a few jazz chords to stuff I play.



There's hundreds of voices and styles from which to choose.

https://app.box.com/file/343743617595?s=4tezgxvwk1379ipkeh8q31j8l7ukbita


I'm also into vintage audio. I've five tuner/amplifiers, but I only use two.

This little NAD, in my "office," our box bedroom.



and this "beast," a 1980s Leak 3400. I can use it to listen to the radio, play records on my 1970s turntable.



or play cassettes on my vintage cassette player.





Or more often, my vintage jukebox wall boxes, on which I can select mp3s on i-tunes playlists, on old ipods and play through the system via an adapter. I've had them for over fifteen years.



Then I've two vinyl jukeboxes in our summerhouse at the bottom of the garden.

This Rock-Ola 443 from 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQaXsWwUW2w

and this Rock-Ola 468 from 1977.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKtzohhGfEE

Because of my wife's disability, I've cut down the days I played golf each week from three, to just one at the moment.

I've also my YouTube channel with over 100 hobby videos on it.

"I don't have time for much else."

 

Shopping today, walked down Aldi's "middle aisle" and saw this.
a telescope car cleaning brush.
You can connect a hose to the end, it has a Hoselock connector and a tap to turn the water on and off.


Well made and certainly worth £9. So I bought one.

 

I have something similar to that it was to wash the horses…hehe..

 

We had a few days out that were a bit further afield lately.

We had a day out the week before last enjoying the waterfront at Portsmouth....but it was a bit too hot really and as we don't use our car anymore the bus trip proved a bit too tiresome for hubs. We will go again in the Autumn or Springtime and definitely not in school hols!!
Only took a few pics.....


Southsea.


Spinnaker Tower.

Clarence Pier.

Portsmouth Harbour
HMS Warrior - Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinnaker_Tower

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warrior_(1860)

 

Today we headed out to a favourite of ours Lymington.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymington

To get there we have to travel through part of the stunning New Forest....a place we spent many happy times visiting when our children were young.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest
Horses, Cows and Donkeys roam free.


Lymington.
Down the High Street and a wander through the cobbled lane to the Quayside.



Picnic in the waterfront park of Bath Rd Recreation Ground.

Due to the extreme dry weather the water level in the central lake was extremely low.


On the way home we passed by this beautiful Stag statue outside a large Estate.


We also passed through Lyndhurst where Alice Liddell is buried in St Michael & All Angels Church. She was the real life inspiration for the character in Lewis Carroll's book " Alice's Adventures in Wonderland "


https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/who-is-the-real-alice-in-wonderland

 

I did a bit of cooking today.
Since my wife came out of hospital, towards the end of last year, I've done most of it as she really struggles getting around the house and mostly uses her walker.
My cooking skills were nil and they aren't much better now. I can cook a roast in the oven and fry up anything on our induction hob. But nothing more complicated than that.
Before she had her fall and went into hospital last April, she asked me to buy her this Ninja air fryer. I was surprised as I bought her the original "Actifry" well over thirty years ago. These had a fault and often caught fire, as did ours. She named it a "Wifyfry" so we got our money back. We've had this Ninja for well over a year and up until now it has never been used. I think she's put off as the trays are very heavy and the controls might be a bit too complicated for her.



Anyway, today I thought I'd give it a go. I tried looking on YouTube for advice, but it's all "me, me, me" by would be TV presenters, bangin' on for ages. They were really annoying. So I went back to the instructions.
It tells you what to do. I decided to cook a couple of steaks.

So I turned it on and chose the setting (medium) and set pre-heat. The little screen immediately said, "SHUT THE LID!!
It then heated up and eventually said, "ADD THE FOOD!"
Later it said, "FLIP THE FOOD!"
It then told me when the cooking was finished.
I was quite pleased on how well it cooked, far better than the usual way I use which is in a pan on the induction hob.
Served with oven chips, it was very nice.

I'll be using it again.

 

I know, I know...said we would give Salisbury a miss for a while after the horrendous bus trip we had 3weeks ago but we love the place so took a chanced again yesterday.

I went on the hunt ( in a limited smallish area) for some lovely old buildings this time....so here are a few that I snapped. Not too sure what some are called or what their origins are. The first is the most famous one that everyone knows of.
No mistaking it.....


NT property... Mompesson House. We have visted it several times.


https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/mompesson-house.

Came across this old house and loved it, so quaint! It's in Bishops Walk opposite the Cathedral. I have Googled it but apart from one photo I haven't yet discovered its history ..but will not give up!!



The Rifles Berkshire and Wiltshire Museum.



Leading into Cathedral Close from the High St is the Medieval North Gate. Built 1327-42


The Old George Inn ..now the entrance to the shopping mall.


https://uk.churchofjesuschrist.org/the-old-george-inn-salisbury.

 

Oreti thank you so much for the amazing tour and ancient architectural design / history . wow what a treat to see.

 

Thank you Pac, you're most welcome. Just hope upon hope I'm not going down a boring path.

Just love getting out and about as much as we're able during the Summer months and am especially keen on seeking out local history and thought it an idea to share snippets of our wanderings especially with you folk from overseas.
I know I love seeing and learning about life from all your corners of our world so thought I would share too.

 

Oreti not boring at all I actually went on and found more YouTube videos it’s like traveling to your country to see and learn from my easy chair. So interesting .

 

It's very interesting to see all of the history in our country and interesting to see it in other ones as well.
As you might remember i lived in Worcester,This is Worcester cathedral
https://youtube.com/shorts/0JwRkWRq9Sg?si=B-F7jd4eFuR4N4El

https://youtube.com/shorts/nDHmE1io4hM?si=FG20l43_mr0oMONU
In the 1970s when i was working when i was on my lunch break i went to have a look at the cathedral with a working colleague and forgot the time and we were a little late getting back to work so we had to work our afternoon break of 15mins.

 

Oreti...The HMS Warrior is one big rowboat I never realized how huge those warships were before until I saw the other boats in comparison. Musta been a frightening site back in the day. Are You allowed on it ? What it must have taken to build that out of wood.

 

Gosh yes a very threatening and scary sight indeed JD!!
Yes it is open to the public.
https://historicdockyard.co.uk/attr...=Visits to HMS Warrior are,as she was in 1860!